Fire Chief

CLAS­SI­FI­CA­TION: Fire Chief

DEPART­MENT: Fire Department 

SUPER­VI­SOR: Deputy Exec­u­tive Director 

EFFEC­TIVE DATE: Octo­ber 1, 2025

PAY LEV­EL: 117 ($89,800.42 — $161,640.75)

PAY CLAS­SI­FI­CA­TION: Exempt

DEF­I­N­I­TION: This posi­tion is respon­si­ble for the over­all man­age­ment and oper­a­tion of the Air­port Res­cue and Fire­fight­ing Depart­ment. Work is per­formed under the gen­er­al super­vi­sion of the Deputy Exec­u­tive Direc­tor with con­sid­er­able inde­pen­dent judg­ment and ini­tia­tive exer­cised in car­ry­ing out the duties and respon­si­bil­i­ties of the Air­port Res­cue and Fire­fight­ing Depart­ment. Per­forms relat­ed duties as required.

EXAM­PLES OF DUTIES: Super­vis­es, directs, plans, and coor­di­nates the activ­i­ties of the Air­port Res­cue and Fire­fight­ing Depart­ment. Respon­si­ble for com­pli­ance with ARFF require­ments set forth in Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Reg­u­la­tion Part 139 and oth­er applic­a­ble fed­er­al, state, and local laws and reg­u­la­tions. Main­tains the FAA approved Air­port Emer­gency Plan and assures com­pli­ance at all times. Coor­di­nates air­port res­cue and fire­fight­ing mat­ters with the Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion, and oth­er emergency/​rescue agen­cies. Main­tains and pro­mul­gates nec­es­sary depart­ment rules, reg­u­la­tions and procedures. 

Super­vis­es depart­ment per­son­nel and per­forms duties rel­a­tive to per­son­nel poli­cies and pro­ce­dures per­tain­ing to employ­ment, ter­mi­na­tion of employ­ment, per­for­mance eval­u­a­tion, sched­ul­ing and work assign­ments. Directs the department’s train­ing pro­gram. Per­forms rou­tine inspec­tions of air­port facil­i­ties to deter­mine com­pli­ance with fire and safe­ty codes. Main­tains and coor­di­nates the Air­port Author­i­ty Employ­ee Safe­ty Pro­gram. Attends con­fer­ences, work­shops, sem­i­nars, and oth­er edu­ca­tion­al meet­ings to keep cur­rent in air­port safe­ty, res­cue and fire­fight­ing matters. 

Pre­pares and rec­om­mends the Oper­at­ing and Cap­i­tal Improve­ment Bud­get for the Air­port Res­cue and Fire­fight­ing Depart­ment. Super­vis­es depart­ment pur­chas­ing in accor­dance with Air­port Author­i­ty pol­i­cy and pro­ce­dures. Coor­di­nates Air­port safe­ty mat­ters with staff, ten­ants, and oth­er users of the Air­port. Attends week­ly staff meet­ings. Serves in an on-call capac­i­ty. Responds to emer­gency sit­u­a­tions after nor­mal busi­ness hours as required. 

QUAL­I­FI­CA­TIONS: Bach­e­lor degree or equiv­a­lent expe­ri­ence required in fire admin­is­tra­tion or a relat­ed field. Sev­en years expe­ri­ence as an air­port fire­fight­er with a min­i­mum of three years expe­ri­ence in an administrative/​supervisory capac­i­ty. The Air­port Fire Chief must be cer­ti­fied as a fire­fight­er by the State of Flori­da and main­tain such cer­ti­fi­ca­tion cur­rent at all times. Employ­ee must by phys­i­cal­ly fit and be cer­ti­fied as drug free. Thor­ough knowl­edge of the prin­ci­ples, pro­ce­dures and equip­ment used in mod­ern fire­fight­ing and pre­ven­tion for Air­craft res­cue and Fire­fight­ing. Must pos­sess strong inter­per­son­al admin­is­tra­tive skills and the abil­i­ty to inter­face and effec­tive­ly com­mu­ni­cate with Air­port staff, ten­ants, gov­ern­men­tal enti­ties, and the gen­er­al pub­lic. Must be able to com­mu­ni­cate effec­tive­ly in both oral and writ­ten form. Must pos­sess a valid Flori­da driver’s license.

MIS­CEL­LA­NEOUS REQUIRE­MENTS: Must pass pre-employ­ment drug test­ing as well as peri­od­ic test­ing in accor­dance with air­port pol­i­cy; must pass a 10-year, fin­ger­print-based, crim­i­nal his­to­ry records check as required by the Trans­porta­tion Secu­ri­ty Administration.

PHYS­I­CAL DEMANDS: The phys­i­cal demands described here are rep­re­sen­ta­tive of those that must be met by the team mem­ber to suc­cess­ful­ly per­form the essen­tial func­tions of this job. 

Work­ing Con­di­tions: Work requires mod­er­ate to extreme expo­sure to one of more dis­agree­able con­di­tions (i.e., inclement weath­er, night and day shifts, emer­gency and stress­ful envi­ron­ment, exces­sive noise, extreme tem­per­a­tures, wet or humid conditions).

Risk/​Safety Con­di­tions: This posi­tion requires mod­er­ate expo­sure of risk to phys­i­cal health and/​or phys­i­cal safe­ty (e.g., expo­sure to envi­ron­men­tal­ly haz­ardous mate­r­i­al, heavy equip­ment, expo­sure to: smoke, nox­ious odors, dust, fumes, chem­i­cals, liq­uid chem­i­cals, sol­vents, oils, fumes or air­borne par­ti­cles). This posi­tion often requires the use of Per­son­al Pro­tec­tive Equip­ment (PPE) and may include com­plet­ing and suc­cess­ful­ly pass­ing med­ical eval­u­a­tions or clearances.

Essen­tial Phys­i­cal Activ­i­ties: Bending/​stooping, sit­ting, stand­ing, crouch­ing, walk­ing, pulling, lift­ing, grasp­ing, hear­ing, see­ing up close, see­ing far away, kneel­ing, reach­ing, pushing/​pulling, talk­ing, climb­ing, fin­ger move­ment of firm grasp­ing and fine manip­u­la­tion, repet­i­tive motions, depth per­cep­tion, bal­anc­ing, squat­ting, work­ing at heights. This posi­tion may require lift­ing up to, car­ry­ing up to, or mov­ing up to 125+ lbs. 

DIS­CLAIMER:

The exam­ples above are illus­tra­tive and not intend­ed to describe every func­tion which may be per­formed by this job class. The omis­sion of spe­cif­ic duties does not pre­clude man­age­ment from assign­ing spe­cif­ic duties not list­ed, if such duties are a log­i­cal assign­ment to the position